Identity theft and misuse of personal information are major concerns amongst consumers and often serve as deterrents to commerce because consumers are reluctant to reveal their personal information. It is known that companies often resell phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and street addresses without authorization. Once this information becomes public knowledge, and especially if it is associated with a consumer who has, for example, purchased a certain product in the past or fallen victim to a scam, this information could also be used to target the consumer.
The consumer fear of misuse of data is especially prevalent when commerce is not face to face, such as when a transaction is conducted in whole or in part online or over the telephone. While certain websites and catalogs may have privacy policies, a consumer never knows when his or her information will be sold or misused.
While “do not call” lists are published at least by the U.S. government concerning telemarketing calls made to individuals who have opted out, unfortunately unwanted calls may still be received which are not covered by the policies of the “do not call” lists or the government policy may not suffice. For example, once a consumer conducts a transaction with a business, that business may again call the consumer even if the consumer does not wish to receive such a call. Furthermore, other callers are exempt from the requirements of the “do not call” lists and, for the time being, there is no comparable “do not call” list aimed at preventing the receipt of unwanted e-mail or regular mail.
Still further, even when a call, e-mail, or other communication is from a “legitimate” source, and even with anonymized contact information, there is no deterrent against abuse of the customer's contact information or anonymized contact information. For example, a business or telemarketer may not be the party the consumer believes it to be. In addition, a business or telemarketer may e-mail or call several times, pretending to be a different entity each time, or send spam (unwanted e-mail) to the customer.
One prior art solution is to provide a temporary phone number or e-mail address. However, these too can be utilized in unwanted manners, and, unless there is a large pattern of misuse across many e-mail addresses or phone numbers, it is difficult to track misuse.
In some cases, a consumer may desire that his contact or other information about his needs be sent to a third party. However, in such a case, in the prior art, there is no easy way to track whether the needs of the consumer have been met by the third party and to stop the information from being forwarded.
What is needed in the art is a method for allowing users to be contacted by merchants or others in a commerce setting, whereby the transaction can take place without fear that consumer contact information will be disclosed to an unwanted party. There is further a long-felt and unsolved need to provide an easy method or device to monitor usage of consumer contact information in order to prevent misuse and track desired use.